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Thursday, 6 December 2012

06/12: PONY AND PESKIES

I'm struggling a bit with the horse picture as the main ref is cropped down from a photo showing two horses and there is very little detail to work from. I do have other pictures which show more but having to use ears from one, eye from another, markings from a third makes it a bit of a challenge. My client likes the main ref photo as the horse's forelock falls over his face and he's peeping out from under it. Problem is that it hides his eye so although she thinks it looks cute/cheeky I'm going to try to persuade her to let me rearrange the forelock slightly to reveal the eye (or part of it) as I think the eyes add personality ... but the client is always right so I'll do as I'm told LOL

This is where I've got to - pastels on Fisher 400 sanded paper

and I'm now disenchanted with the squirrels ....

I know I've always excused their bad behaviour/thieving habits because they keep me amused ... but now their antics are becoming expensive.

Two seed 'bells' stolen at the weekend and now one of the new seedfeeders has been wrecked. A fellow Blogger, Bev, had the same thing happen to her where the squirrels chew at the plastic 'plugs' which surround the holes where the birds get the seeds. They enlarge the holes so all the food falls to the floor.

Today we replaced that feeder with one that has metal plugs and perches ... lets see the little bu**ers chew through that! David also bought a peanut feeder because he liked the appearance of it - its a wooden and wire mesh contraption supported on a hessian rope so wonder how long before that gets demolished? I think we are going to reinforce the rope by adding another handle - probably staple a length of metal chain to the wooden holder.

I still like to think they look cute - and I really must draw one soon as I have so many photos:

But .... word's obviously got out that we have lots of feeders on our trees and this afternoon there were four of them wolfing down the bird seeds/fatballs ... never seen that many in one go before. I think we're under siege now.

The horse is beautiful....and I am not sure if you watched autumnwatch but they said as a result of a lack of food from the rainy summer...we could expect to see an influx of squirrels. Same here and getting braver every day ;)

Love the pony Sue, doesn't look like you are having too much trouble with him. I agree with the eye, so hope the customer goes along with the expert :-)

I also bought a new stronger bird feeder with metal perches....only problem is that it is a bright orange and VERY shiny and I think the birds have gone into hiding from this strange new thing....hopefully they will regain their confidence. So far no squirrel....maybe he is scared of it too :-)

HELLO FROM ME

I am a professional portrait artist living in Whitstable, Kent with my husband David. Working from your favourite photographs I specialise in drawing realistic portraits of pets and people, using graphite, coloured pencils and pastels. Why not commission a portrait of your horse, dog, cat or other family member? see some of my work at: www.sueclinker.co.uk